​Vintage Watch Blog.

Thank you for reading my vintage watch blog. I am always looking for great blog ideas or questions about watches or men's style. If your question or situation is unique, I will choose it along with my answer to post on my blog. Thank you.

Pocket Watches...

are a significant part of the vintage watch market these days. Didn't I say that was going to happen in my past two yearly state of the industry blogs I wrote? I don't remember, I hate to be right. As President Trump would say "this is going to be BIG!!!" You can still say his name right? I'm working on the New Standard Revised Dictionary of the United States. It seeks to remove any word that may offend anyone. So far, I have "and", "is", and "it" as part of the new dictionary..."it" is up for debate. Okay, this is what happens when I don't take my meds. Back on subject....

Yes, I've predicted this new renaissance and it's happening. Pocket watches are back in the spot light. Enough about that, i've been touting my predictions like I'm the damn watch oracle. To the left is a video of a 992E movement ticking away, on time. This watch is for sale on my website here: Hamilton 992E

​The Hamilton 992E uses the infamous Elinvar hairspring. There are some variations of this hairspring from Hamilton. Our watch, I would call the correct or purist, because it is white metal and the way it should be. From what I understand, consumers and watchmakers whined that it was not traditional blue and Hamilton made many of these with some sort of blue plating or die in the alloy. This is why you see many Elinvar's with a blue hairspring. It is also possible that during a service, the hairspring was incorrectly replaced with a non-Elinvar hairspring. A common but tragic service technique. Our 992E is perfect

This example of a Railroad Grade & low production pocket watch, is one that is in high demand with some commanding over $2,000. This is the type of watch people are wanting, Railroad or higher grade pieces even in the dress watch category.

Howard Dress Watch

Howard Grade Series 3

People really enjoy the beauty that comes with an antique or vintage pocket watch. Collectors may be focused a lot on Railroad grade watches while consumers looking for a gift, enjoy a more affordable dress pocket watch, like the Howard shown above. Inspecting the watch, it's still as high quality as most Railroad watches. What sets them apart is that Railroad watches were typically required to be 16s or 18s size with 5 adjustments and must be lever set. Almost no dress pocket watches are lever set; most are stem set, pin set or key set depending on their age. Also most pocket watches made for dress are size 12s for men.

Burlington Railroad Grade

Stunning Burlington Movement Actually made by Illinois. Illinois made all Burlington movements.

Above is an excellent example of a Burlington railroad grade pocket watch. I tend to gravitate toward Burlington because they are generally undervalued; They were not a real manufacturer, I believe all their movements were made by Illinois, and it is documented as so. Now... Illinois was an excellent high grade watchmaker that spared no expense at making very nice movements capable of modern chronometer specifications and in many examples, better than chronometer specs. Illinois was extremely well regarded and famous for their Bunn Special Railroad watch. Burlington is a great watch to buy because they are generally less expensive than their counter parts that contain Illinois movements, mostly only seen in Burlington Watches. As far as I can tell, Illinois did not use the Burlington calibers in their own watches, at least not often. In my opinion, I like looking at a fingered bridges or something that is not the usual 3/4 plate for a change.

Waltham Watch Co.

Very nicely decorated and finished Waltham Royal.

When looking for a pocket watch, you need to be careful. Unfortunately, there are already a lot a "franken watches" out there, where a movement and dial was reinstalled into a case that it does not belong in originally, or a brand new case made in China or who knows where. It's a shame that people are buying these with this information undisclosed. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with doing this, although it sits on the gray line of counterfeiting, but it must be disclosed. There are plenty of people that would buy newly cased movements, but they are not worth as much as original examples and consumers need to know that.

One other thing to consider when purchasing a pocket watch is the dial. There are two common types of dials. Porcelain enameled glass or metal. Both have there merits in my opinion. Although collectors gravitate toward porcelain dials, especially ones that are double sunk, porcelain is not capable of the decoration that can be accomplished with metal; and metal is not capable of the look that porcelain creates. Take this Howard below as an example of some dial decorations that cannot be accomplished with porcelain.

Very nice Howard with a metal dial and encased with solid 14k white gold. You can see how the double sunk dial look can still be accomplished with a metal dial.

While we are talking dials, mint or near mint with maybe 1-3 very faint hairlines are acceptable investment pieces. Porcelain dials that are very damaged with obvious large cracks and even missing material are not preferred. If you buy one of these, you can expect to pay much less than a perfect counterpart.

One other interesting piece of information about the preferred double sunk porcelain dials. When looking at them, it is easy to assume that the dial is all one piece. But the truth is, the primary way manufacturers made double sunk dials (like the one below) were made by grinding out a hole in the main dial and then soldering-in the separate sunk sub-dials. Huh, I would never have thought that. That seems like quite difficult work, and perhaps why they are more revered than pocket watches that don't have this feature.

Hamilton 992E; this watch is in stock and currently for sale at AdamVintage.

I'll end with just a couple observations I've noticed. Vintage or antique pocket watches are popular today as gifts for milestones. Birthdays, anniversaries, wedding gift to the groom, and collectors are all in the market for pocket watches. Pocket watches that are popular with collectors tend to be most expensive, more scarce and are appreciating at a high level. In fact, pocket watches have been appreciating in value for a few years across nearly all types of watches. There you have it. If you have not been following us on social media, you may not know that we are currently in the process of moving most of the office and opening a small vintage gift boutique that will feature some of our inventory. Like us on facebook and youtube for more information.

Disclaimer: Any and all trademarks mentioned here are for descriptive purposes only and are the property of their respective owners. Adam Vintage Watch Co. and its owners and affiliates are not authorized agents for Rolex Watch Company and are not affiliated with them in any way.